Dragon Age 4 - now The Veilguard

[Ruin Explorer]

The reason to play qunari is for the fun of the camera cutting your head out of shots and just focusing on your inquisitorial chest.

Yeah I played a Qunari in DAI and there was an awful lot of that!

In general DAI is not great for the player having particularly interesting dialogue options period. Inky/Inquisitor is definitely the most weakly-written DA protagonist. Rook has a distinct personality and some pretty good dialogue options, whereas Inky is really dry. I felt like BioWare kind of got away with it because the companion writing in DAI is pretty great, which makes up for Inky being no Shepard or Hawke.

 

[wicked cool]

I agree with levistus and would argue that

Dao as a warden you have so much more freedom than any other da game after. Yes the graphics are aged and clunky but dao

-you can steal items. Very beginning of the game you can steal a sword from camp
-as a dwarf origin you can backstab 1 group over another/betray a nominee running for king etc etc
-you can have children. Both as a dwarf and as a warden you have kids
-relations with non companions
-you can choose not to recruit or even rescue companions (sten)
-the murder knife
-how you got your specialization was the most immersive. The one you get as a mage from the trapped spirit was awesome
-the true evil choices are just like Bg3. Bg3 is really the true successor to dao

I could go on and on. Veilguard is a nice game and I’ll probably play it for a while but
-the writing is childish
-how they handle non binary is just fnn awkward. Dai one of the questions you can ask krem are so bad i have never asked . Same goes with taash. I like taash as a companion but once again there’s no nuance to it
Same goes with Harding .
The villian dialogue has the be some of the worst dialogue ever written for a serious RPG. There’s not a single villian that holds a candle to even the mid level bosses in Bg3. Minthara is 100 times more complicated than anything in veilguard . There’s not a single villian other than solas that’s as complicated as the main villians in dragon age origins like loghain, rendon Howe, bhelen especially as a dwarf noble,
Dark spawn were scary and not this goofy mess. I like the new types but the dark spawn licking their blades , creating idols in woods or crushing their enemies in the hands were just way better
Plus they got rid of wolves, spiders and 99% of wildlife is on screen for a second before vanishing underground
They actually removed weapon types. There are no 2 handed swords and so far I haven’t found a mace

 

[Horwath]

still waiting for the game to be free, but, some current numbers:

DA:V, current players 8K
BG3: current players 60K
Witcher 3: game from 2015, current players 31K

now, if almost 10 year old game is trashing DA:V this bad...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

still waiting for the game to be free, but, some current numbers:

DA:V, current players 8K
BG3: current players 60K
Witcher 3: game from 2015, current players 31K

now, if almost 10 year old game is trashing DA:V this bad...

It's trashing it because people like me are playing TW3 because the TW4 trailer just came out lol and it's sold literally 50 million copies, like 25-30m of them on Steam. If it's 30m, if only 0.001% of TW3 owners were playing the game, that'd be about what we're seeing!

 

[pukunui]

So in terms of DAV's story - without spoiling anything, does it build on the previous games in a satisfying way? I'm particular interested to follow up on Solas and see if I am right that the archdemons are corrupted versions of the other elven "gods". Gameplay issues aside, it's that level of the DA story that hooks me in. I loved all the elf-related reveals in DAI, for instance. The red lyrium and qunari storylines in DA2 were also top notch.

I also quite liked the "deep dwarves" and the titan and that stuff from the DAI: Descent DLC.

Will I find DAV satisfying on that level, even if the gameplay isn't that great?

I mean, DA2 has its "incomplete/rushed" issue with all its repeated maps, and DAI has its grindy crafting materials issue. Even DAO has issues (particularly the whole "Why would I want to look for your lost nug when I'm trying to solve your realm's succession crisis so I can get your people to come aid me in stopping a blight?" sidequest thing).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

So in terms of DAV's story - without spoiling anything, does it build on the previous games in a satisfying way? I'm particular interested to follow up on Solas and see if I am right that the archdemons are corrupted versions of the other elven "gods". Gameplay issues aside, it's that level of the DA story that hooks me in. I loved all the elf-related reveals in DAI, for instance. The red lyrium and qunari storylines in DA2 were also top notch.

I also quite liked the "deep dwarves" and the titan and that stuff from the DAI: Descent DLC.

Will I find DAV satisfying on that level, even if the gameplay isn't that great?

Without spoiling anything it's hard to say much but yeah literally everything you mention is built on there and in ways that a lot of people really liked. Ghil Dirthalen, for example, the DA lore YouTuber absolutely loved it on that basis, and she has very high standards for lore.

There is a slightly controversial post-credits scene, but I won't say more on that.

Also the gameplay is very good - but it's modern God of War-ish and action-y - the ability to RP anyone who isn't a pretty nice guy is fairly restricted, that's the biggest flaw it has.

 

[pukunui]

Also the gameplay is very good - but it's modern God of War-ish and action-y - the ability to RP anyone who isn't a pretty nice guy is fairly restricted, that's the biggest flaw it has.

That last bit honestly isn't an issue for me. I don't enjoy playing bad guys. Even jerks are usually a step too far. I always play characters who are on the LG / NG / CG spectrum.

 

[Horwath]

It's trashing it because people like me are playing TW3 because the TW4 trailer just came out lol and it's sold literally 50 million copies, like 25-30m of them on Steam. If it's 30m, if only 0.001% of TW3 owners were playing the game, that'd be about what we're seeing!

sure, there is some value in new trailer and surge in last few days for W3,
but if we look for last few sundays as the day that both games peak with players,
W3 is around 24-26k and DA:V is around 14k. That is also very bad result.
and BG3 peaks around 100k on sundays.